We cannot tell whether you are being difficult or not. And even if you are, they are required to put the work in place in a satisfactory manner.

I do agree with Schmellba99 regarding how a residential contractor is going to react a lot of times. With the market how it is, you are going to struggle to find good work at a fair price. That goes for you, and for contractors looking for labor. Thus the poor quality and the delays. All that being said, if a customer is difficult for a contractor to deal with, that guy's needs are going to be pushed to the bottom of the priority list. He figures, if he's going to make someone mad, it might as well be the guy that he doesn't like. Once again, this could be the case from owner to GC or with GC to subcontractor. It isn't necessarily right, but its human nature. That's why the means by which an issue is resolved sometimes plays a factor in how issues get dealt with down the road.

I doubt you are being difficult, its probably more of a sign of the market right now and the labor gap.

There is a direct correlation between price and quality in residential construction. In most cases craftsmanship has been thrown under the bus and most people don't care about the finished product as long as it was done cheap and fast. There is a huge difference quality wise between a high end remodel and a cheap one and the devil is always in the details. From your posting it seems your expectations are that of a high end finish finish out with a lower end budget and that's just not going to happen in the real world.

difference between highest and lowest was 63K

CapCity12thMan said:

---

difference between highest and lowest was 63K

---

perhaps not

throw out highest and lowest and everyone was within 10K of each other

The contractor worked with me to smooth out the column posts I had aesthetic issues with, and repaint them - looks better, but I would give it a B+. I think I will just have to live with final product. Part of this project was to remove some front porch columns and make them square to match these new ones in the back but I have respectfully asked for that to be de-scoped from the project.

I opted NOT to go forward with a change order for them to add decking to my added staircase since I felt they were trying to recoup some sunk costs in the CO pricing. Using the leftover decking material I am gonna do it myself, should be fun DYI thing.

Last night I went to look at the framing of the staircase and see the image below as to what I found. It is a 3 stringer staircase, 36" wide in total. The pic is of the middle stringer. The middle stringer is approx 1/4"-1/2" lower than outside stringers. When I lay a decking board across the tread, the step is concave.

https://imgur.com/a/E5UUVhM

Again, I hate to be "difficult", but this to me is not acceptable...opinions?

FWIW - here is where we are as of today: https://imgur.com/a/Q31UcPS

Yea.... that's some ****ty framing. Whole runner is out of level too. I don't know if that's "walking on these stairs is difficult" bad or just "aw, no one else will ever know" bad. ie: I'm not sure if the functionality is compromised or if it's good enough to work but not good enough to be proud of. Either way, the tradesman should be embarrassed.

What do you expect the contractor to do to fix it?

My statement to them, was that when the treads are laid and secured to the framing structure, the tread is concave. They need to be flat. I guess I don't mind the 1/8" lean of the entire staircase...I could let that go or even shim one side to correct it - I can live with that, but to have the middle of my staircase bow 3/8" to 1/2" on every tread in the middle is stupid.

I keep posting these experiences because others have suggested I am being a "difficult" homeowner, but every step forward seems to be wrought with poor quality.

Quote:

---

It is crap but all you have to do is put a shim under the board on the center stringer.

---

not that simple. The framing is done in such a way that each deck board on the tread (2 per) will have a supporting joist between the stringers (see page 12, option 2 here: https://azek.com/docs/installation/azekdeck_install_guide.pdf). So if I shim the middle stringer, then the deck board is only supported by the stringers and not the framing underneath. That's the issue a simple shim cannot solve.

I think a fix is to remove the supporting deck board joists, and make those level across, then you can put a shim on the middle stringer to bridge that small gap they create. That is a fix. The right way to do it is to rebuild it and make my GC find a competent carpenter to build me a simple staircase right the first time.

CapCity12thMan said:

---

I keep posting these experiences because others have suggested I am being a "difficult" homeowner, but every step forward seems to be wrought with poor quality.

---

Okay, I'll try to answer this delicately.

I hold myself to a higher standard than I do other people. I am always on time, I do not miss deadlines, and I deliver on every promise I make. Often, my standards lead me to work 60+ hours a week (no OT pay), and sometimes even to lose money on a project simply because I want to be able to be proud of the work. Other people do not hold themselves to that high of a standard. In fact, I've found over many years that if I expect other people (employees, clients, contractors) to have the same high standards for their behavior that I have for mine, I am in for a sore disappointment. I cannot reasonably expect others to put out the level of perfection that I expect of myself.

That attitude certainly also translates to contractors. We've all seen the sort of corner-cutting & shoddy workmanship that you're experiencing. No, it's not good work. You clearly have very high standards (near-perfection) for craftsmanship. The law of diminishing returns says that for every step closer to perfection, it costs exponentially more money. If you're expecting a contractor to be absolutely perfect, then the cost will be infinite. Obviously, that's not attainable.

It sucks that contractors & craftsmen who can meet your (or my) standards are so rare. IMO, they're actually not that much more expensive, but they much much more rare than the run of the mill paint-to-match, hammer-to-fit bunch. If you find one, compensate him well and keep him busy. Otherwise, you'll obtain better quality work by just DIY'ing.

Ornlu said:

---

It's a 1/4", on rough pine framing. That's a high standard. If you don't acknowledge that your standards are high, well...... you have the answer to the question you keep asking.

---

Ummm it's 36". It is easy to find a decent 2x4 and cut a semi straight board...

I think if you understood the decking material I am using, as well with the framing requirements it demands, you would understand how this is going to look. I get it - you don't have the full scope of the issue, so just needing to shim something 1/4" is trivial, but there is more to it than that.